American

During the era known as the Renaissance, Europe emerged from the economic stagnation of the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions.

The Renaissance, French for "rebirth," perfectly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. At the end of the plague in the 1450's, also known as the "Black Death" the population of Europe decreased radically which led to an economic depression. As incidence of the plague decreased in the late fifteenth century, populations swelled, creating a new demand for goods and services. A new middle class began to emerge as bankers, merchants, and trades people once again had a market for their goods and services.

During the Renaissance new technology was made that had a great impact on the world. Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1445; he forever changed the lives of people in Europe and all over the world eventually. Previously, everything was copied and illustrated by hand. Gutenberg's press could produce books quickly and with relatively little effort. Bookmaking became much less expensive, allowing more people to buy reading material. In the Middle Ages, books had been costly and education was rare; only the clergy had been regular readers and owners of books. Most books had been written in Latin, considered the language of scholarship. In the Renaissance, the educated middle classes, who could now afford books, demanded works in their own languages. As the demand for books grew, the book trade began to flourish throughout Europe, and industries related to it. Papermaking thrived during this era. The result of all of this was a more literate public and a stronger economy. This can be shown in the book, Sources of the Western Tradition.

Books